


Gently

by squidgirlfriends



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, me: rolling around on floor, very very brief mentions of pearl’s fam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-10-24 03:42:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17696999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squidgirlfriends/pseuds/squidgirlfriends
Summary: “Marina, I’m not going back to sleep until you open the door.”“Why not?” It was a childish answer, it came out like a whine from behind the door. A plea. Pearl felt this heavy, sour hurt settle in the pit of her stomach; she hated this just as much as Marina did.(alternatively: on nights like this, it's pearl's turn to be the adult)





	Gently

Pearl woke up at one thirty-two in the morning, her thoughts pulsing in her head with a sort of emptiness that kept her from falling back to sleep. She sat up slowly, shivering as the covers slipped from her shoulders, her cold hands retreated into the sleeves of her oversized sweater, which she had stolen from Marina’s closet half a year ago. It had stopped smelling like Marina a long time ago, but it was still big and warm, so Pearl wore it gladly.

It was a moonless night, no silvery light to filter in through Pearl’s window just across from the bed. In springtime she would pry the window open and she and Marina would climb out and sit together on the rooftop, talking about anything and everything, laughing until their stomachs hurt. It was rarer now more than ever that they should both catch a break or vacation, considering Off the Hook’s growing popularity among Inkopolis and beyond, so trips out to the Houzuki mansion grew fewer and farther between.

Pearl sat for a few moments, just breathing and trudging through that half-awake ungodly-hours-of-the-night haze. She looked down at the spot next to her, expecting to see Marina with the blanket pulled up over her ears, the sound of her voice murmuring gently—because sometimes she talked in her sleep—but the bed was empty aside from herself. The place where Marina would have been wasn’t even warm. Pearl frowned. She slid out of bed, her bare feet cushioned in their fall by the soft, fluffy carpeting. She licked her dry lips, rubbing the last bits of sleep from her eyes and stretching her arms over her head. Relaxing, she took a deep breath and let it out before leaving her room, opening and closing the door as quietly as possible so she wouldn’t wake her brother or sister.

    Walking down to the very end of the hall, Pearl peered out the huge window that overlooked the mansion’s entrance. In the driveway, Marina’s motorcycle was still there, just behind her father’s shiny black sports car. So, she hadn’t made a run for it and left, she was still here. Pearl turned and looked back down the length of the hall. No lights were on in any of the rooms. She went down the hall and checked the full bath anyways, just in case Marina was hiding out, but it was empty.

    Pearl yawned, she scratched at an itch on her stomach and she tiptoed down the stairs, her feet padding against the heated-tile floors of the kitchen as she reached the bottom. She made her rounds: Marina was not in the kitchen, not the dining room or the media room or the home theater, and not out on the deck, which would have been insane considering the subzero weather they had been experiencing in the past week. All considered, Pearl didn’t put anything past Marina anymore. She had once run all the way from her apartment in Inkopolis to the mansion _on foot,_ just because she was angry with Pearl. The girl was insane. Pearl wanted to give her a bone-crushing hug, twenty-four seven, she wanted to kiss her stupid, pretty face to death.

    She stopped as she turned into the living room, her gaze drawn to the half bathroom just around the corner. The light was on, a line of muted light breaking through the crack of space between the floor and the bottom of the door. Pearl stepped up as quietly as possible, pressing her ear to the door. She heard shaky breathing, the occasional muffled sniff.

    “M—” Pearl’s sleep-thick voice caught in her throat, and she coughed. “Marina?” She tried to keep her voice soft.

    The noise in the bathroom fell silent.

    Pearl frowned. “Marina?”

    Silence. Then, a sniff.

    “Just go back to sleep, l’be there in a minute,” Marina sounded like she was trying to talk with a bar of soap in her mouth, like she was gurgling on something stuck at the base of her throat.

    “Marina…” Pearl said, gently. “What’s up?”

    “Go back to sleep.” Marina’s reply was quicker this time, albeit much more wobbly and uneven.

    “Marina—”

    “Go away. Go away I can’t _listen_ to you right now,” Marina’s voice grew louder, more uneven.

    Oh. So _this_ was what it was. Pearl slid down until she was sitting on the floor, leaning against the door.

    “Marina, I’m not going back to sleep until you open the door.”

    “Why not?” It was a childish answer, it came out like a whine from behind the door. A plea. Pearl felt this heavy, sour hurt settle in the pit of her stomach; she hated this just as much as Marina did.

    “‘Cause I can’t go back to sleep if you’re not there.” She waited a moment, there was no answer. “Please, open the door. I can help you, just let me in…”

    No answer. Pearl closed her eyes. “Marina…” she whispered. “Please open up…”

    A second. Two, three, then four. A beat of silence, and the lock on the door clicked. Pearl sat up and away from the door, reaching for the knob and opening the door slowly.

    Marina’s face was pressed to the toilet seat in her pathetic little spot on the floor. Her skin lacked its usual glow, a rocky, ashen gray laying just underneath smooth mocha brown. She shivered, curled up. Her brow furrowed every once in awhile; if her shoulders relaxed for half a second she would tense up again half a second later. Pearl sat down next to her gently, resting her hand on Marina’s back. She flinched, but didn’t shy away from the touch.

    “You’re getting toilet germs on your face,” Pearl said, hoping for a hint of amusement.

    “Better than vomit germs,” Marina muttered, cracking her eyes open. “Whatever happened to ‘I can help you?’”

    Pearl’s response didn’t stutter in its exit, she found she was always more patient when Marina was like this. After all, she’d dealt with it before, too.

    “C’mere,” Pearl said. “Mama Pearlie’s gonna tell you a special one in the morning story.”

    Marina frowned. “What if I vomit on you?”

    “You won’t vomit on me.” Pearl raised her eyebrows.

    “You dunno that,” Marina narrowed her eyes. A shudder rippled through her, her fingers tapped restlessly on the floor, but she didn’t squeeze her eyes shut, didn’t shrink away. Pearl was starting to distract her.

    “I know everything,” Pearl said matter-of-factly, “I’m literally god.”

    “No, you aren’t,” despite herself, Marina sat up slowly, hunched over herself. Her eyes were red and swollen like she had been crying, but there were no tear tracks on her cheeks. Pearl reached up, cupping Marina’s cheek in the palm of her hand. While Marina didn’t shy away from the touch, she didn’t lean into it either.

    “C’mere,” Pearl repeated, and this time Marina obeyed, laying down and resting her head in Pearl’s lap. Pearl placed her hand on Marina’s shoulder, she could feel her pulse racing nearly a million miles an hour beneath her fingers. “Tell doctor Pearl what’s the matter.”

    Marina closed her eyes again, her hands closed tightly into fists. Pearl gently reached over, tucking Marina’s tentacle behind her ear and tracing a gentle line from her temple down to her jaw. For a moment, it seemed to relax her, but another moment passed and her pulse flared up again, her whole body drew in and tensed. Pearl frowned, but didn’t push her question.

    After another beat of silence, Marina parted her lips. “I—I don’t know what feelings are real, which ones are just me...messing with myself,” she closed her eyes, and took a shaky breath. “I don’t know whether I want you to be here with me or if I don’t. I want to shove you away, I want to run away and dig my head in the dirt and scrub myself until this is all gone and I can go back to the way it was before.” Her voice hitched in her throat, she shivered and her face contorted like she was going to cry. Again, Pearl traced gently down the side of her face.

Pearl waited a moment, trying to figure out where she should start. 

    “You know,” She began, “There’s this island, out by the harbor. When I didn’t want to go to school, I’d hide out there.”

    Marina’s eyes remained closed. She was listening.

    “It’s far away enough from the boardwalk that if you go there alone, you’ll be alone the whole time. S’always quiet except for the waves at the edges and the trees swaying deep inside…

    “It’s best in the spring, ‘cause the leaves on the trees are new and green, an’ the sunlight coming through them makes the trees look like they’re glowing. But I think one of my favorite parts about that island is the way to get there.”

    Pearl smiled a little. Her voice, still shrouded in a thin layer of sleep, rasped gently as she spoke. “On the boardwalk, just between the way to the harbor and the vendors by the road, there’s a break in the fence I slipped through. I took off my shoes and left them under the dock, I’d splash through the water and slip over the wet rocks and then there’s this sandy path that stretches right outta the water, s’like a little beach around the place.

    “Most of the island is raised a little above the water level, that’s why the trees and grass and flowers can grow without bein’ flooded away. Most of the outside of it is smooth, big rock, like a little mountain, but there’s one little area you can find if you follow the sand path long enough that’s easy to climb, and that’s how you get up there.”

    Pearl took a breath, a break. Tension had slowly begun to melt from Marina’s shoulders. Pearl rubbed little circles into Marina’s shoulder blade with her thumb, continuing.

    “Once you get up there, s’like a whole different world. Bare feet in the grass and birds singing and all that princess movie stuff, but you can still smell the ocean when the breeze blows through—it’s like paradise. I’d go there for hours. I’d sing, and yell, and sleep. Before I was old enough to go to places like Mount Nantai by myself, I’d hang out there. I still like it there more than the mountain, f’I’m being honest.”

    Pearl paused. Marina had turned to look up at her.

    “My mom used to take me there.” the words came out lighter, more hollow than Pearl wanted them to, and she coughed.

    Marina’s eyes widened a little, just for a moment.

    “I’m gonna take you there, too, one day. Once it stops bein so stupid cold…” Pearl pursed her lips. Marina kept looking at her; she felt her cheeks color a little. She hadn’t spoken that openly to anyone in a long time.

    “I had a garden.” Marina said softly. “Before I started…” she hesitated, “...school, at my home with my mother, I had a garden. It was behind the house we shared, with a simple irrigation system I designed. The…” she hesitated again. “...once it got dark… the plants would glow. I would sit for hours and watch them move and light up. It was one of the first things I ever made.” The softness in Marina’s eyes was faraway, nostalgic.

    “Well, I can’t grow plants for nothin’, but I bet that garden was the best garden on the entire planet.”

    Marina chuckled, now completely relaxed in Pearl’s lap. She gazed up at Pearl again. “Would your mother have liked me?”

    “Liked you?” Pearl snorted. “She would’ve loved you. Adored you. It would probably’ve been absolutely disgusting, how much she’d love you.”

    Marina smiled. She slowly sat up, hugging her knees to her chest. She looked back at Pearl.

    “Feel better?” Pearl asked over a yawn.

    “Maybe,” Marina covered her mouth in an answering yawn.

    “Le’s go back to sleep, then…”

    Marina nodded, sluggishly. Pearl stood up and stretched. She offered her hand to Marina, who took it and stood, stumbling for a moment before regaining herself.

    “Legs are asleep,” she mumbled.

    “Yeah, well, let’s hope the rest of you is asleep before the sun rises…’energetic youth’ my butt, I just wanna sleep for a year…” Pearl grumbled.

    “You and me both,” Marina loosely held Pearl’s fingers in hers.

    Back up the stairs and under the covers, Pearl hugged Marina close, her hand rested at the small of Marina’s back. A reassurance, if anything.

    _I’m here for you._

**Author's Note:**

> p.s.: a lot of this is based on headcanons that I haven’t shared much on social media but I DO think about a lot.... can u spot them all? lol


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